Ride in the Rain

 I was feeling pretty good about myself having done 1000+ miles of my commute this past year by bike; that is, until November ended. November was "Ride in the Rain" month at the University of Washington; basically the University’s transportation services department challenges bicycle commuters to commute to and from work as much as possible during the month of November (one of the rainiest months of the year in Seattle). The thing is it’s not that much of a commitment to say you are going to bike every day in November since November is generally one the shorter work month of the year with Veteran’s day, Thanksgiving, and the day after Thanksgiving as holidays. I did manage to make it though the entire month of November and only missing one day of biking into work; so despite the short month I managed to rack up more miles than any other month in 2009.

Then I saw the stats of the other “Ride in the Rain” cyclists. One guy in particular racked up 828 miles in the month of November (granted his one way commute is 23 miles!). Another guy with a commute that is just as long as mine made 28 round trips in the month of November (granted this means that guy went into work every week day, weekend day, and one of the three holidays). Clearly I am not hard core. Consider that in my attempt to commute by bike as much as possible during 2009 it took me 3 months of biking to rack up as many days of biking as one guy did during the cold rainy month of November, and it took me 10 months to rack up as many miles as one guy did in a single rainy cold wet month.

I’ve still got the month of December to commute by bike before the year of 2009 is over. If I bike every single day in December that I intend to be at work that gives me another 20 days of biking, but with family coming into town for the holidays I’m likely to take a few days off. Despite the fact that I don’t stand up against the best of the bike commuters (or even place in the top 40 for my place of work), I do feel that my attempt to commute 1000 miles by bike in 2009 was successful and I kind of feel the need to outdo myself in 2010. Maybe for 2010 I’ll shoot for 2000 miles commuted by bicycle! ...but don't hold me to it, I've got other things to focus on now, like skiing!